The Islanders will have free agent goaltender Keith Kinkaid in training camp on a professional tryout contract, relays Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News.
Kinkaid, 35, is on the UFA market for the fifth time in the past six years. He spent last season on a two-way deal with the Devils, where he spent six of his 10 NHL seasons, but didn’t play in the organization. He was instead loaned out to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, the minor league’s lone non-affiliated franchise last season, where he had a 3.54 GAA, .880 SV%, and an 8-14-2 record in 24 appearances.
An undrafted free agent signing by New Jersey back in 2011, Kinkaid was a solid backup/1B option during his peak in the Garden State but hasn’t been an NHL regular since being traded to the Blue Jackets at the 2019 trade deadline. He’s made 14 NHL starts and four relief appearances over the past five seasons and didn’t see NHL ice in 2023-24.
The Long Island native will now aid his hometown team in camp. Inexplicably, the veteran of 13 professional seasons and 169 NHL games is on the Isles’ rookie camp roster, where he’ll be providing insurance for 21-year-old prospect Tristan Lennox, who’s reportedly a bit banged up and might not be fully ready to go in the run-up to veterans reporting to training camp next Wednesday.
In those 169 career appearances, Kinkaid has a 70-58-21 record, eight shutouts, a 2.91 GAA, and a .905 SV%. 151 of those games came in a Devils uniform, although he’s also logged time between the pipes for the Canadiens, Rangers, Bruins, and Avalanche in the past few years.
The Islanders already have six goaltenders signed, so the likelihood of Kinkaid landing a contract from this PTO appears slim. The team already acquired a veteran presence for their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, bringing in former Senator Marcus Högberg on a two-year deal. Lennox and a pair of other contracted prospects in their early 20s (Jakub Skarek, Henrik Tikkanen) will also compete for reps in Bridgeport.
Lou is so old and unimaginative. There are, in fact, players to bring on board other than ex-Devils.
That’s the first thing I thought of too. This only proves how inept Grandpa Lou is in ruining this team. We have zero cap space to really improve this team because everyone is signed to high salary multi year contracts. It’s all his doing. No one twisted his arm to sign some of these players to multi year deals. And they’re all untradeable except for a select few. I’ve been saying it for several years now, but he has got to go. The Islanders management has got to stop this crazy love affair they have with him and finally FIRE Grandpa Lou. If this was the real world he would have been fired a long time ago. You can’t keep your job when you don’t improve, and he hasn’t improved this team at all.
I have to agree with you. Lou signed too many big contracts with long terms and most of the players are untradeable. There is no cap room to make real improvements. The team is going to be bad for years to come. I think it’s time for change in management